The bottom line is clear: Our vital interests in Afghanistan are limited and military victory is not the key to achieving them. On the contrary, waging a lengthy counterinsurgency war in Afghanistan may well do more to aid Taliban recruiting than to dismantle the group, help spread conflict further into Pakistan, unify radical groups that might otherwise be quarreling amongst themselves, threaten the long-term health of the U.S. economy, and prevent the U.S. government from turning its full attention to other pressing problems. -- Afghanistan Study Group

Kirkuk:#1: “A combined force from the Iraqi army and police, backed by a U.S. force, raided the village of Lizaka, al-Huweija district, (65 km) southwest of Kirkuk. Armed clashes broke out between the force and people in a house, leaving a gunman and a security personnel killed,” Brig. Sarhad Qader, the director of the Kirkuk Districts Police Department (KDPD), told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

Mosul:#1: A policeman was shot dead near his house in eastern Mosul city on Sunday, according to a local security source in Ninewa. “Unidentified gunmen in a vehicle opened fire on a policeman who was on a leave of absence from duty near his house in Aden neighborhood, eastern Mosul, killing him instantly,” the source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#2: Policemen found the unidentified bodies of two men east of Mosul city on Sunday, a local police source in Ninewa said.

#3: A police force found the body of a student who had been kidnapped a few days ago west of Mosul city on Monday, a security source said.

Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"#1: TWO people have died and 19 have been wounded, including police, in two bomb blasts in the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad. The first explosion went off today in front of a mosque and, when police and locals rushed to the scene to help the wounded, a second bomb detonated, a provincial official Ahmad Zia Abdulzai told AFP. "In the blasts, two people were killed and 19 people were wounded," said Abdulzai, adding that most of the casualties were from the second explosion. The target of the blast is not known but there was a meeting at the mosque in the city's eastern edge. Another provincial official, speaking anonymously, added that pro-government religious clerics had been meeting at the mosque and they may have been the target.

#2: Nato forces in Afghanistan reportedly fired nine mortar shells into North Waziristan after their four helicopters intruded into the same area, official and tribal sources said on Sunday. The sources said that the nine mortars fell in Mir Ali tehsil, Spinwam tehsil and Titi Madakhel area at 7:00pm. There was no word about the losses because of disrupted communication system in the area. It may be added here that eight persons were killed in such an incident last month when five mortar shells were fired by the Nato forces from across the border into North Waziristan. Meanwhile, late on Saturday night four Nato choppers violated the Pakistan airspace and entered into Powara Mandi area in Miramshah, agency headquarters of North Waziristan. The Nato choppers intruded about five kilometres into Pakistan, the sources said. An official, pleading anonymity, confirmed that the Nato choppers violated the Pakistani airspace and returned after flying over the area for 10 minutes without taking any action.

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Afghans hold banners during a protest in Kabul March 6, 2011. Hundreds of people, chanting "Death to America!", protested in Kabul on Sunday over a spate of civilian casualties caused by international forces, a sign of the simmering anti-Western emotion among ordinary Afghans.

And the PTB in the US will make sure this goes NO WHERE. They don't give a rat's ass for the innocent people they kill.

But when I went to visit her, I found a woman I did not recognize. She was now covered head to toe with her black abaya, something she never wore in her youth. Her spirit was broken. Her life was good after she got married, she said, and her husband was loving. “He always told me that we must do everything to make sure our daughters and sons finish their education.”

But then came the day he was shot in the head by neighbors during sectarian fighting.

He was shot for being a Shia. No more. No less. And that changed everything. Radya had to escape with her children from their beautiful home, became internally displaced, and bounced from one charitable group to another. The educated receptionist who married for love is now a vulnerable widow, one of an estimated 1 million. She had to marry off her own daughters.

People often ask me if the invasion of Iraq and the toppling of Saddam was worth it. And though I cannot defend him, it breaks my heart to see what happened to Radya. Her life was destroyed and turned upside down. If she was an example of holding out hope for positive change, that hope was assassinated in Iraq.